Parks
1

PIATT PARK

Not postcardsBird's eye view

This small (.84 acres) park is
the city's oldest. On April 9, 1817 the Piatt brothers, John (1781-1822) and
Benjamin (1799-1863), gave this land to the city for a market place. Because
there were other markets nearby, the land was developed into a park. Situated in
the middle of Eighth Street between Vine and Elm it was called Eighth Street
Park and was dedicated on June 18, 1868. In 1882 a year after the death of
President James A. Garfield, (from Ohio), by an assassin the park was renamed
Garfield Park. It was not until October 20, 1940 was it again rededicated in
honor of the Piatts.
On December 1, 1887 a statue of President Garfield was
unveiled in the middle of the intersection of Eighth and Race Street facing
Cincinnati (south). Of course
by the early twentieth century it had become a nuisance for downtown traffic. On
January 14, 1915 it was moved to the western end of the park at Elm Street. It
was again moved to its present position on the Vine Streets end in 1988.

Real photo postcard

Real Photo PC

Garfield and Harrison statues

William Henry Harrison married
the daughter of John Cleves Symmes and moved to North Bend. During the war of
1812 Harrison commanded the Army of the Northwest and emerged a national hero.
In 1840 Harrison became the ninth President of the United States and the first
elected from Ohio. One month after taking office he died of pneumonia. He is
buried in North Bend beneath an imposing monument. This statue of Harrison was
sculpted by an instructor at the Art Academy, Louis T. Rebisso. Strangely
Harrison, in full battle regalia, is shown without a saddle! No One knows what
holds the stirrups up. Dedicated on June 25, 1895 at the eastern end of the park at Vine Street. It,
like Garfield's statue, was moved in 1988 to its present position on
western end of the park at Elm Street. (confusing isn't it?)

From top of Library

Five views of the
park

A little piece of trivia I
learned on my tour of some of the Civil War battle sites. Whenever you see a
monument of a soldier sitting on a horse, if the horse has one leg raised the man
was wounded in battle, if the horse has both front feet reared up the soldier
was killed in battle. Harrison had been wounded in the Indian wars. The last
card above was just recently discovered as mistakenly being placed on the
Kentucky website. It is one of several cards that were misprinted in Germany for
the Metropolitan News Company with Covington, Ky. instead of Cincinnati, Oh.

WASHINGTON PARK

Washington Park is located across
the street from the Music Hall, bounded by Elm, Race, 12th and 14th streets, it comprises 4.9 acres. Up until 1855 this area was a
cemetery. Public health officials feared "miasmas"-vapors that were
thought to rise from corpses-might be responsible for many of the urban health
problems. So the city bought the land and reinterred the bodies in Spring Grove
Cemetery.
The park opened in 1861. There are two granite busts in the park. Friedrich
Hecker (1811-1881) was a refugee from the German revolution of 1848. He founded
the first Turner society in the United States, (see Turners page). Hecker was a
brigadier general in the Union army. The other memorial is of Robert McCook
(1827-1862). He was a colonel in the Union army who led the all German 9th Ohio
Volunteer Infantry from Cincinnati. He was killed during the war. These
memorials were erected in 1883 and 1878 respectively. The cannon you see is from the Civil War fleet of
admiral David G. Farragut.

Friedrich
Hecker
Robert McCook

Day
scene
and Night scene

BURNET WOODS

This park is located north of the
University of Cincinnati, south of Ludlow Ave., east of Clifton Ave., and west
of Jefferson Ave. Consisting now of about 91 acres, it opened on August 26,
1874. The park originally consisted of about 165 acres but the University of
Cincinnati was built on the southern portion of the park and later additions
took over even more of the park.
The first two cards show the bandstand where the very
popular band concerts were given on Thursday evenings during the summer.
Community sings where everyone joined in were also given. The building you see
in the next few cards was a shelter house. The small man-made lake was built in
1875, it had
rowboats that could be rented for 50 cents an hour, there was also a motor
launch that would take you around the pond for a nickel. In 1936, 12,000 people
attended a Federal Music Project production of "H. M. S. Pinafore,"
that was on a stage that was floating on pontoons in the lake. The Trailside
Museum and Nature Center, north of the lake, were constructed in the early 40s.

Same card-different interpretation

Same Image Same
Image

They not only took out the poles in the last card-they must have run off the girl standing in front.

Children's Home Outing
RPPC Unknown Group
RPPC 7/04/1911 Outing

Two newer cards

Digg's Fountain Plaza

The fountain is located at the northwest corner of
the park. Information on the fountain is extremely thin. Can any one help?